LA puts the heat on Yogi to the stars

Friday 30 June 2006 19.06 EDT
First published on Friday 30 June 2006 19.06 EDT

Even for a brand of yoga famed for extreme heat and regimentation - a uniform sequence of 26 poses performed at temperatures of 40C - the classes at the celebrity studio in Los Angeles must have seemed unusually strenuous.

On Thursday the yogi to the stars, Bikram Choudhury, was charged with flouting Los Angeles fire and safety codes by squeezing an extra 111 disciples into a studio built for 49.

The charges are the latest run-in between the city authorities and Mr Choudhury, who built a global business empire out of his brand of overheated yoga. Last April the studio was temporarily closed for failing to maintain proper fire exits.

Mr Choudhury is notorious for the zealousness with which he has promoted his style of yoga. The Calcutta-born Mr Choudhury, who claims to have ministered to Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, did not take kindly to the reprimand. He told the Los Angeles Times he was a victim of harassment and threatened to move his headquarters to Hawaii. "Thanks a lot, LA," the yogi said. "I've made up my mind."

Mr Choudhury's style of yoga is held in rooms kept at temperatures of 40C, and devotees of the boot camp approach typically attend three times a week.

He has applied the same rigour to establishing his ownership over his style of yoga, sending out legal warnings to studios he believes have borrowed his postures and breathing techniques.

But the fame and aggressive business approach apparently did not cow the LA city attorney, Rocky Delgadillo, who told the Los Angeles Times: "No one is above the law, whether it's celebrities or the yoga guru to the celebrities."